Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Tales of Begging, or "Wow, That's the High King of Excuses"

I stopped on Plum (77 druid) to grab an herb in the Barrens and buff a level 7 rogue and his friend. Solid, friendly buffs. The kind of buffs that get you a pleasant /wave or /thanks.

"Could we have some gold, please?"

My reply was simple, eloquent, and perhaps a little rude. "Ha," as I rode off.

In my mind, most people wouldn't stop to buff in the first place, but that simple action turned into a ten minute persuasive conversation where he tried to convince me that he hadn't been begging and really did need/deserve gold and I tried to convince him of all the avenues of gold-making open to him.

It went something like this:

Me: Ha.Him: Why "ha"?Me: Because begging is funny.Him: That wasn't begging.Me: Anything that includes "can you give me gold please" is begging.Him: Why was it funny?Me: That you thought I would give it to you.Him: You're 77, I made like 2000g from 70-80 on alliance.Me: Then you know how to make gold, or you can send it to yourself from your level 80 through the AH.Him: My 80's on another server.Me: You can make gold by gathering.Him: I don't have the gold to train gathering.Me: It just takes silver.Him: I'm 3x experience, I can't even train skills.Me: I did that on Moon Guard. You'll live. Just work the AH and don't train the skills you don't need.

And so it went. I kept shooting down his excuses and giving him sound money-making advice until he stopped replying. People with the 3x experience bonus might have a lot less gold to throw around, but it's not impossible to make and, really, you're leveling with 2 people and don't need all your latest talents or the best gear to be effective (though it can be a pain, and I'm not arguing that, it's entirely possible to survive).

I've made 1,000g from a small amount of seed money (from my level 60, who also started with nothing) on the Moon Guard pet trade. I told the High King of Excuses how I ran a level 2 to the Booty Bay auction house (from Ironforge) to pick up pets cheap and resold them on the Alliance AH for a 6-12g markup. It was slow, and it wouldn't be nearly as profitable on Zuluhed, but I now have enough for epic mounts for myself and my husband, and HKoE could easily get enough to train his abilities. It'll be harder for him to get the funds to buy mounts at 30 and 60 (I refuse to acknowledge whining about "I can't buy my epic mount" because I'm still riding a regular ground mount on the previously-mentioned level 60, but a regular mount is something I'm sympathetic to). The regular ground mount cost was lowered, and it really is possible to go an extra 10 levels without one (that's how we used to do it, after all), but I recommend one of two options: persistence in making gold or getting to know and befriend someone over a few weeks and asking them for a loan (something you will and had better pay back). Never ever ask for a hand-out. That's cheap.

If you want to make gold, folks, don't whine about how easy it is for high levels and how tough it is for you. Dig in your heels and do the work. There are always opportunities available, and if you learn how to exploit those opportunities (and not the people around you) and continue to practice similar techniques at high levels, you'll make money hand over fist. It's all about taking the time to do it right.

I've been playing since January '07 and have several less awesome characters. My real life profession is writing, and I've been married since my junior year of college. Whenever that was.

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Contrary to popular belief, my favorite color is not, in fact, pink. It's blue. But in a game built mainly for guys, I get excited about any girly additions and consider it my duty and my pleasure to gush over them.